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WASHINGTON — Congressional committees are holding up a plan to send U.S. weapons to rebels
fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad because of fears that such deliveries will not be
decisive and the arms might end up in the hands of Islamist militants, five U.S. national-security
sources said.

Both Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees have expressed reservations
behind closed doors at the effort by President Barack Obama’s administration to support the
insurgents by sending them military hardware.

None of the military aid that the United States announced weeks ago has arrived in Syria, said
an official from an Arab country and Syrian opposition sources.

Democrats and Republicans on the committees worry that weapons could reach factions such as the
Nusra Front, which is one of the most-effective rebel groups but also has been labeled by the
United States as a front for al-Qaida in Iraq.

Committee members also want to hear more about the administration’s overall Syria policy, and
about how it believes its arms plan will affect the situation on the ground, where Assad’s forces
have made recent gains.

Money that the administration told the congressional committees it wanted to use to pay for arms
deliveries to Assad’s opponents has been temporarily frozen, the sources said.

“As noted at the time we announced the expansion of our assistance to the Supreme Military
Council, we will continue to consult closely with Congress on these matters,” Bernadette Meehan, a
spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said yesterday.

Technically, the administration does not need specific congressional approval either through
public legislation or some kind of legislative sanction process to move ahead with the weapons
plan. The president already has legal authority to order such shipments, several sources said.

However, under tacit rules observed by the executive branch and Congress on intelligence
matters, administrations will not move ahead with programs such as weapons deliveries to the Syrian
opposition if either of the congressional intelligence committees expresses serious objections.

Syrian opposition sources and officials of governments in the region that support anti-Assad
forces have begun to express puzzlement as to why new weapons shipments promised by Washington have
not yet begun to arrive.

The only way the administration’s plan will move forward is if congressional committees can work
out a deal with the administration to resolve their concerns, those sources said.